Materials such as foodstuffs, pharmaceutical products, botanical extracts and the like usually deteriorate when exposed to light and air. Hence such materials are usually packed in hermetically sealed opaque containers such as a metal can so that damage caused due to atmospheric contact, light exposure, oxidation, and dehydration may be reduced. As a result long shelf life and high quality of the materials is achieved.
However a product that is packed in an opaque sealed container cannot be viewed by a customer of the product prior to purchase. As products such as herbs and other unprocessed botanical products vary significantly from one sealed container to another sealed container, it becomes pertinent for the customer to visualize the product prior to the purchase in order to determine a quality of the product. Opening the opaque sealed container to enable the customer to view the product, may result in damaging the product due to exposure to light and air. Several methods exist to enable the customer to view contents of an opaque sealed container prior to the purchase. However, these methods suffer from one or more drawbacks as discussed below.
An existing method includes placing a representative photograph(s) of the contents of opaque sealed containers on an exterior of the opaque sealed containers. However, such representative photograph(s) do not show an actual image of the contents, but rather a representative image of a type of the contents. As a result, the customer may not be able to judge a quality of the contents by viewing the representative image. An actual quality of the contents may differ from a quality of the contents estimated by viewing the representative image, thereby resulting in a dissatisfied purchase.
Another existing method includes placing a translucent cover or using a translucent material such as a plastic film or a glass film over a part of the exterior of the opaque sealed container. The buyer may view the contents through an area of the opaque sealed container that comprises the translucent cover or the translucent material. However, passage of light through the translucent cover or the translucent material may lead to damage of the contents. Further, the translucent materials such as the plastic film or the glass film are usually fragile and expensive over metallic materials and hence may be avoided by a typical manufacturer of the opaque sealed containers.
Therefore, there is a need for techniques for enabling verification and inspection of the contents of the opaque sealed containers in an effective manner.